The rich are getting richer BECAUSE the poor are getting poorer

As we munch popcorn and watch the Republicans in their death match with President Obama over the fiscal speed bump and whether or not our economy will tumble to the ground if we raise taxes on the super-rich by 3.9%, a big part of the rhetoric we hear from the GOP is that this is a tax on business owners. Besides the fact that this is largely untrue and that in the small percentage of businesses affected, it only raises taxes on their income OVER $250,000 year, the fact is that our country’s economy is largely driven by large corporations and the contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by small businesses is shrinking.

Big businesses, as it turns out, are doing just fine. Workers’ wages, on the other hand? Not so much.

As part of the Obama administration’s ongoing “We Can’t Wait” program, they announced today an aggressive new initiative to spur the creation of job-creating startup companies. It’s a two-pronged approach. First, they are launching a $1 billion Early State Innovation Fund which provides matching capital to small business investment companies. This is part of an existing program called Startup America. […]